Should I Build It Should I Build It
02 Jul 2025
Cooking Food & Drink

Recipe directory mobile app food food food food food food

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space with your recipe directory mobile app. Our analysis identifies this as a 'Swamp' category, meaning many similar solutions exist, but few have truly resonated with users. We found 21 similar products, indicating high competition. Engagement is low, with an average of only 1 comment per product. Critically, we don't have sufficient positive user signals (use or buy) to indicate a strong market pull for another recipe app. This doesn't mean your idea is inherently bad, but it needs a significant differentiator to avoid being lost in the noise and if it doesn't have this differentiator, then you should seriously consider a pivot.

Recommendations

  1. Before investing further, deeply research why existing recipe apps haven't achieved widespread success. Don't just focus on features; investigate user experience, marketing, and monetization strategies. Read reviews, analyze competitor failures (as highlighted in the similar products criticism summaries), and identify unmet needs that your app can uniquely address.
  2. If you proceed, identify a specific niche or underserved group within the broader cooking community. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, focus on a particular diet (e.g., specific allergies), cooking skill level (e.g., beginner sous vide), or cultural cuisine (e.g., authentic regional recipes). This will help you tailor your app and marketing efforts for a more receptive audience.
  3. Consider a B2B approach. Instead of directly competing with existing recipe apps, explore providing tools or services to them. This could involve recipe database management, AI-powered recipe suggestions, or user engagement features. Partnering with established players might be a faster and more sustainable path to market.
  4. Given the challenges in the recipe app market, explore adjacent problems that might be more promising. Could you focus on meal planning, grocery shopping, or reducing food waste? These related areas might offer a clearer path to success with less direct competition.
  5. Analyze the criticism summaries of similar products. For example, several users requested vegan recipes and the integration of AI. If you continue with the recipe app, implement these suggestions. Also, based on other criticisms, focus on recipe export functionality from day one.
  6. Consider how you can differentiate in terms of data quality. The "I made recipes app" was criticized for accepting harmful, non-food items as ingredients. Ensure you have robust data validation and curation processes in place to ensure accuracy and safety.
  7. Given that you are creating a mobile app, consider carefully if it must be a mobile app only. Consider if there's a web component you can add. If users can use it without downloading it that might add convenience.

Questions

  1. What is the core, unique value proposition of your app that existing solutions lack? How will you validate this proposition early on with real users?
  2. Given the low engagement observed in similar products, what specific strategies will you employ to drive user engagement and retention?
  3. How can you leverage AI to make your app stand out from the competition, and how will you ensure the AI is reliable and accurate? Could you implement AI recipe suggestion, recipe critique or even a chatbot?

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space with your recipe directory mobile app. Our analysis identifies this as a 'Swamp' category, meaning many similar solutions exist, but few have truly resonated with users. We found 21 similar products, indicating high competition. Engagement is low, with an average of only 1 comment per product. Critically, we don't have sufficient positive user signals (use or buy) to indicate a strong market pull for another recipe app. This doesn't mean your idea is inherently bad, but it needs a significant differentiator to avoid being lost in the noise and if it doesn't have this differentiator, then you should seriously consider a pivot.

Recommendations

  1. Before investing further, deeply research why existing recipe apps haven't achieved widespread success. Don't just focus on features; investigate user experience, marketing, and monetization strategies. Read reviews, analyze competitor failures (as highlighted in the similar products criticism summaries), and identify unmet needs that your app can uniquely address.
  2. If you proceed, identify a specific niche or underserved group within the broader cooking community. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, focus on a particular diet (e.g., specific allergies), cooking skill level (e.g., beginner sous vide), or cultural cuisine (e.g., authentic regional recipes). This will help you tailor your app and marketing efforts for a more receptive audience.
  3. Consider a B2B approach. Instead of directly competing with existing recipe apps, explore providing tools or services to them. This could involve recipe database management, AI-powered recipe suggestions, or user engagement features. Partnering with established players might be a faster and more sustainable path to market.
  4. Given the challenges in the recipe app market, explore adjacent problems that might be more promising. Could you focus on meal planning, grocery shopping, or reducing food waste? These related areas might offer a clearer path to success with less direct competition.
  5. Analyze the criticism summaries of similar products. For example, several users requested vegan recipes and the integration of AI. If you continue with the recipe app, implement these suggestions. Also, based on other criticisms, focus on recipe export functionality from day one.
  6. Consider how you can differentiate in terms of data quality. The "I made recipes app" was criticized for accepting harmful, non-food items as ingredients. Ensure you have robust data validation and curation processes in place to ensure accuracy and safety.
  7. Given that you are creating a mobile app, consider carefully if it must be a mobile app only. Consider if there's a web component you can add. If users can use it without downloading it that might add convenience.

Questions

  1. What is the core, unique value proposition of your app that existing solutions lack? How will you validate this proposition early on with real users?
  2. Given the low engagement observed in similar products, what specific strategies will you employ to drive user engagement and retention?
  3. How can you leverage AI to make your app stand out from the competition, and how will you ensure the AI is reliable and accurate? Could you implement AI recipe suggestion, recipe critique or even a chatbot?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 21
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 1
  • Net use signal: 17.3%
    • Positive use signal: 23.8%
    • Negative use signal: 6.5%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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Recipe accepts non-food, harmful items as ingredients.

Accepts non-food, harmful items.

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